Prince leads Pistons past Cavs; James rests

LeBron James was in uniform but took a planned night off.

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (AP) — Tayshaun Prince’s post-Olympic slump might finally be over.

Prince, averaging just seven points on 31 percent shooting, scored 17 points in 29 minutes Wednesday night, and the Pistons beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 97-79.

The Cavaliers were playing without LeBron James, who was in uniform but took a planned night off.

Prince won gold with the United States in Beijing, but has struggled since getting back to the United States in time for Detroit’s training camp. Before Wednesday, he hadn’t scored more than 12 points in any of Detroit’s six exhibition games.

“Tonight, I got a lot of open looks in the corner, and I was able to knock some of them down,” he said. “I was just taking the shots that came to me.”

Prince had 11 points during Detroit’s third-quarter run, including two 3-pointers, which matched his total in the first six games.

“We had a lot of guys getting open shots tonight, and I was the one that made mine,” he said. “We did a nice job of moving the ball and creating things.”

The game was 40-40 at the half, but Prince helped Detroit outscore the Cavaliers 28-16 in the third quarter — something that coach Michael Curry credited to his defense.

“We were making plays and rebounding the ball, and that let us get into transition,” Curry said.

The Pistons were led in scoring by Rodney Stuckey’s 20, but the defense-oriented Curry wasn’t completely happy with his second-year guard’s performance.

“His first three or four possessions weren’t good,” he said. “He was back on his heels and they were going by him. Once he started to get aggressive, he was quite good.”Daniel Gibson led the Cavs with 16 points and Mo Williams scored 14 in the first half. Cleveland finishes its preseason schedule Friday against Washington.